


Much ado about nothing, something and who knows what else

by FireThatFox



Category: Naruto
Genre: Depression, F/M, Obsessive Gaara, dreaming while awake, more modern setting but they are still shinobi, yearning Itachi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 16,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22799371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireThatFox/pseuds/FireThatFox
Summary: This is a selfish fanfic of new things, old hurt and cliches.  I am writing this for myself, but I hope you enjoy it as well.This will be very corny, very confusing and not at all like my other writings.  I will use lines from old plays, songs and Tv shows, maybe.This will not be canon,  aside from Gaara, I have only one main plot line that will probably get distorted through the meager confines of my fluttered brain.You have been warned, it may have humor, it probably won't make a lot of sense to anyone but me at least for the first few chapters, it may be dark at times and light in others... but again, enjoy...at your own risk.Sakura is starting college in a new city but her old one won’t seem to leave her alone, from friends to enemies.  In the mess of it all she meets Gaara, and possibly his Uncle Sasori, his brother and sister, and a number of other non original character personalities even if the names are the same, eccentric and off the wall with no plan.This will not be smooth, this will not go well, in fact, you ought to read something else :)By the way...I've always wanted to live in a warehouse.
Relationships: Gaara & Haruno Sakura, Gaara/Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 31
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

It was a warehouse. Rain drummed an off beat tattoo on the already wet plaster that was her hair. She stood motionless. She would be sick by tomorrow if she knew it. It was raining...still. Two boxes lay at her feet. The last two of too many to count. Alone, She was alone...finally. A deep breath, one, then two. She closed her eyes. It was a warehouse.

Her parents were dead. Six feet under they said to her. She knew they were lying. They were only five feet under at best. EVERYONE lied. It was a warehouse.

The rain dripped down her face onto the front of her shirt. Her once short hair was growing out, longer now just past her shoulders. Little rivers of warm and cold ran off the thick wet locks that clumped the moisture together like the damp soil of the earth her parents were now confined in, five feet under. She opened her eyes. Yes, it was indeed still...a warehouse.

There was a key in her hand, she knew it fit a lock somewhere. To lift her hand, too great a prospect. Effort. It would take effort. Did she care? It was only a fucking warehouse!

Breath, she was breathing she knew because she was alive. A sigh...her hand lifted the key to the hole. It was unlocked already. She sighed. Bending over, she knew how to do that, she picked up a box. It was wet, because it was raining. She kicked the door, it creaked, she walked through the door, it creaked shut behind her. Yup, just what she thought, a warehouse.

One foot after the other, a repetitive motion inside her mind. It wasn’t her. She wasn’t there. She was at the cemetery still, looking at a stone, five feet above her dead parents in the ground. Their names on the stone, carved not by hand but by some machine, impersonal, robotic, no breathing there. “IN loving memory” it said. Love...love...love...she set the box down by the stairs in the back of the warehouse.

One by one she brought the boxes in. One by one she placed them on top of, by or next to the others, until they too were no more...like her parents, five feet under.

No more.

Pulling the keys from the truck, her fathers...she tucked them into her pocket and walked to the plain cold door fo the new home, the warehouse, set back far, in the back of the back of an industrial area of the next city over from Konoha, away...far away from everything. She wasn’t that far away, but in her head...away.

The dance began again. Each box made its way up the cold metal staircase to the second floor, the lab, some to the third floor, the living area. One after the other until they were gone. Math...she thought, life was math. Numbers, formulas, logic, aftermath but math all the same. Math...reliable, predictable...until proven wrong, damn you Einstein, relative indeed, relatively useless, damn it Murphy not Dropkick but Law...Math.

A low hum hit her throat...ah yes there it was...amusement. She had had it once in her life, but no more...no more.

Life in a box. Mail order only she was her own deliverer. Money, she had, life she didn’t. Well she did only, it lacked...waste not want not? Her mother would say, but couldn’t anymore...because she was dead.

Don’t worry I won’t say it...yeah I will, cause she’s five feet under.

Hungry...she felt hunger but she had more boxes to move from one side of the loft to another. A bed would be needed, she had seen such in magazines, she knew how to make one herself, she had taken engineering, wood class, etc, and if she died a horribly painful death trying, who cared? No one knew where she was, no one cared that she wanted to care and if they did care...she didn’t care.

She could do it, it was math after all.

Her body gave out before her mind...isn’t that always the case? Mind over matter is all and good but if your body is part of the mind does it matter? Food, she needed food. It was still raining out. She hit someone on her way here she knew it, but it didn’t matter, they were already dead. People were dead, they just didn’t know it. The man on the corner who she gave all the change in the console to, dead, the little girl skipping rope in the park she had passed, dead, the old woman in the wheelchair by the pond...so dead.

She felt dead. Did dead people eat?

Apparently they did. She pulled the keys from her pocket and stared down at them. An ace of spades keychain sparkled up at her. Spades, oh yes, she had lots in lots in spades of nothing such nothing...spades. She threw her head back and laughed hysterically...no one heard, she was alone. She walked down the first set of stairs to the second floor, then the next to the landing, or the warehouse part of the warehouse. What would she do with all this space?

Life beckoned her again, tempting her with thoughts of...being.

Ah yes, food, she needed food. SHE opened the door to her ...house...and stepped outside locking the door behind her. It was still raining. She unlocked the door to the truck, and got inside. If she sat there long enough she wondered, would it start on it’s own? Could it sense her needs, her desires? No. It wasn’t alive, it was dead, like her...was she alive? They were all dead...dead...and she was alone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a different point of view of much of the same thing

Teal eyes watched her move slowly about the warehouse across from thiers. Her small figure flitted in and out of view as the frame of the windows blocked his vision of her. His arms were folded across his chest, his body stiff and rigid. She was something...new in his world.

The bright colors of her hair and eyes, for he could see they were green. His vision lacked for nothing, his social skills wanting much but her eyes...they were green and her hair was pink. A snort. A grunt. Preposterous, such stupidity, to dye your hair pink, what a bother, what an imbecile, he hated her already.

He hated the way she walked, her truck, her body, her hair, he hated her hair. Her eyes, her clothes, black, who wears black all the time...except for him. Warranted he had just seen her this once, but it was enough...he knew, she wore black all the time...and he hated her for it.

Slowly, so slowly she walked up and down and around then stopped. Alone she was alone. As quickly and as annoyingly as she had appeared she left. He hated that she was gone, it had interrupted his entire day and for what...nothing, she was gone. He grit his teeth and folded his arms tighter across his chest, a bother, that’s what she was a bother to interrupt his entire day...for nothing. He hated her.

A week later she had returned, with her truck and had started unloading boxes. He stood again...by the window. Watching. One after another. She unloaded...boxes.

It was raining. He hated the rain, it messed up his whole day and here she was again, with boxes. Ugly ones too. They were all the same color...brown. What an ugly color brown was. All the same shape too, he hated her more for her lack of creativity in her choice of receptacles. Was she moving in?

Briefly, he wondered, what were in the boxes, they were all the same size...and color. Not too big, not too small, like her head, but pink, what a terrible color. He watched her all day. A busy thing, steady and repetitive, it had almost lulled him to sleep but then he had noticed...she had stopped moving. She was standing in front of the door, in the rain.

He made a noise in what, the first noise in the five hours he had stood there watching her.

“Tsk.” He made the noise.

She was just standing there, it made him impossibly angry, why? What was the purpose, what could she be thinking? Why was she just standing there in the rain!

“Move!” He screamed at her but she didn’t seem to hear him. 

Was she ignoring him? Did she hate him as much as he hated her? Why was her fucking hair so fucking pink! She just stood there and he watched her. Rain kept falling on her and she refused to move. Was she broken he wondered? Was she real? Maybe this was all in his head. But that still didn’t mean it wasn’t real. Maybe he should throw something at her. Would she move then? She moved then, and opened the door. It creaked loudly...and he hated it.

He couldn’t see her for a few moments and he wondered where she had gone. Stepping forward, he pressed his face to the window, it was cold, and he stepped back. So, He saw her, moving, slowly. It was like a dance. The same one only inside. She moved each box, one at a time, over and over, one by one to a different level of her home...what did she have in the boxes?

He grit his teeth, the walls...they were in his way. He couldn’t see her. He hated them. There, she was there, in front of the window, no...she was gone...the wall, damn it the wall! She paused, the last box? Was she done dancing for him..he waited, holding his breath, what would she do now that all the boxes had been moved? He was curious, he had to know, what would she do?

She disappeared from his vision and he scowled.

The door opened, the door to the street...of the warehouse. She came out and sat in the truck. The door was shut but she hadn’t moved to turn the thing on. He knew she knew how, it was what had gotten her here...to him. She sat there, her head down...alone and doing nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

He waits by his window and watches the road below. When will she be back? WHERE did she go and why does he care? He taps his foot on the floor...he hates that she isn’t there. Aren’t people supposed to stay home? Doesn’t she know it is dangerous out there? He turns to look at his room. Maroon and sand colored. He likes his room.

He doesn’t have a concept of time. It is meaningless. He knows not how long he waits but he waits...glued to the window. His.

A light, no two, he sees it. A truck? Is it her? It is, he knows now...her truck. It parks. Why there he wonders, not in front of her door. It’s empty though, no one lives here but them. She gets out. No waiting? He watches. She stomps to her door. Food? She has bags, three.

She enters her door, it slams shut. Did she kick it? Like me. He smiles.

He moves, another window over. He watches, she moves. A bag, then two come into view. Where is the third? Oh, there. She set it on the floor? Disgusting. Green, lots of green...like her eyes, he wonders. Does she only eat food the same color of her eyes?

There are no teal foods that he knows of.

Pots, and pans, she pulls on them. A stove, she has one. She’s cooking, he watches.

Meat, is that fish? Carrots, those are orange. Green peppers, celery, and zucchini..all green go into the pan. She moves back and forth, slowly. Why does she move so slowly, its like she is underwater.

She’s drowning...he can tell.


	4. Chapter 4

Darkness falls. The industrial lights of the building next door bother her. It’s bright, like the dying sun, but not really because it’s fake. It’s harsh and painful, artificial and it hurts. She gets up from her pallet on the floor of her raised loft, she needs a mattress.

She stretches and her back cracks.

She sits, hanging her feet over the side of the loft, pulls herself forward against the metal bars and looks out of the window with the least amount of light.

Summer.

She pads down the stairs one at a time slowly, no falling, not tonight, maybe tomorrow. A balcony, small but just for her, off to the side of the living area, she moves. It’s locked, she pushes, it doesn’t move, she kicks it. Bending metal rips through the air in shrieking panic, she freezes. So loud. She shrugs, she walks out onto the balcony. Is it safe? Who cares, if she dies...who cares.

The stars. They shine. Maybe she isn’t alone. Not enough. She goes back inside. More, she needs more. She looks, the grate, the bars, the roof. She goes. Higher and higher. The hatch, she punches it, it opened. No sound, she climbs.

The Stars. They shine.

She moves to the edge of the roof, no rail. She wonders...if I jump off, will I fly? I’ll fly. She moves, her toes curl over the edge, she closes her eyes. She can’t. Logic...her greatest enemy.

She is alone.

She sits, her legs dangling over the side of the roof. She watches the stars. She breathes, it’s hot. She lays down on the dirty roof, who cares, not her.

So many stars. She closes her eyes. If she opens them, will she still be there...on her roof? Will The stars still be there, shining in the dark sky or will they leave, like everyone else?

She left. They left, who cares...she’s alone.

She opened her eyes. The stars. They shine.

A noise. Her head turns to the building across the street. A boy, a man? He sits on the roof, his head to the sky. Is he watching the stars? His head turns to her. He looks, she looks.

The Stars. They shine.


	5. Chapter 5

He tilts his head back to the stars. He sits. It’s quiet, he feels peace. His friends, the stars, they shine.

He’s alone. He’s happy. Is he?

She moves, he can see her. She’s awake, can’t sleep? He watches, she raises from her blanket, cold metal, his hands, they grip the posts, he waits. She moves and sits, she walks the stairs, down.

She stops, he looks, she kicks, a noise loud and piercing, he hates her. Obnoxious, his peace. Gone. Her fault. He glares, she moves.

She leaves, he glares, he hates, she climbs, he watches, she opens the hatch to her roof.

He is surprised. He smiles. His friends, the stars, they shine.

She walks to the edge, he holds his breath. What? Is she doing it? He wonders, and waits. She moves, her eyes...are they closed?

Will she jump, I’ll save you! What? He hates her. No, who will save him? He waits. She moves, no flying, he breathes.

She looks to the sky, his sky, his world. The night, it’s his. She doesn’t know...he hates her so much.

She lays down...like a pig. In the dirt! So gross. He hates it. He moves, a rock, some something, a noise.

She looks. He looks.

The stars. They shine.

He isn’t alone.


	6. Chapter 6

She didn’t remember getting back into bed, but she was. The sun was up. She groaned. What day was it, oh Saturday. She yawned, she stretched, she groaned.

She breathed. She was alive.

She sat up on her pallet, it hurt, it was thin, she needed a real bed, or a mattress. The store, that’s where she would go today, a sigh, more interactions.

She hated people, their voices, their bodies, the press, the groan, the population...the outside...people, them, her, them ugh.

A noise, she looked, nothing. Her imagination? She hoped.

Stairs, she took them...one at a time, down, down, then down again. A warehouse, she forgot her coffee. Up, up she went, she ought to change her clothes, she sighed, to the box, with her clothes...she opened it and looked, wrong one. A sigh, there, it was there, she moved, it opened, she looked, the pants, the shirt, it’s summer, another shirt, different, color, she threw it on over her head and grinned.

It was red, not black, a color yay, she moaned she took it off, another, the other, black, she put it on, she groaned, better.

A brush, to her hair, her teeth, her head, she moaned, ugh.

Tedious.

Money, phone, for what? She didn’t know, she had changed her number. Keys.

Hair loose, she pulled, it hurt, she rolled her eyes, no, she left, the stairs one, two and then three levels later, she locked the front door. Gone

Her truck, she climbed in, she turned on the radio, after the key, it turned, the hum, the window, she smiled for the first time in a long time. She drove.

It was hot. It was summer. The roads were crowded, she was annoyed. Humanity was...suffocating.

Just a mattress that’s all she had wanted, too many people...we need another plague, she grumbles.

She finds the store, it’s big , but not as big as her warehouse, she smiles...that’s two in the last hour, she feels...something.

Too many choices, why? It’s a mattress, how much can each one differ from the next? She closes her eyes and points to one...too expensive, no point for the extra cost, she picks the one next to it, why? Who knows, she doesn’t, it costs less though.

Delivery, she’s small, so were the boxes. Four hours? Okay.

To the next store, more humanity, closer quarters, ugh, the inhumanity of the press of humanity...she wants to hurl, but she doesn’t…

Three pots, dirt and seeds, she leaves.

Home. At last.

Sanctuary! Her sanctuary.

One pot, then two then three, up, up and up. The seeds in her pocket, the dirt over her shoulder, up, up, and up. She stands looking up at the cage, the bars, she sighs.

One pot up through the hatch, another, the last. The dirt. A problem.

A bucket, half filled. She goes, up then over, she purrs, one two and three, again, no more, she smiles, third time...four hours.

The seeds, one pack per pot, it says differently, too small, she can’t read the writing, a waste, who cares………...not her.

Water, oh yeah, for life, to be sure, she does, and waits. Will it grow? She wonders, or die, she frowns. Ah well, they will have plenty of sunlight. Her eyes, she shades them, looks up, too bright, she scowls.

It might be nice.

She smiles. How many times, who knows, more, is better, for that.

Two hours, she waits, she reads, on the roof, no one around she’s pleased. She thinks, last night, she looks, he’s looking.

Red hair, teal eyes, she wonders how long...is he looking? He is.

She smiles, he frowns, she looks, he stares, she frowns, he turns to look behind him, she continues to read.

But she smiles...


	7. Chapter 7

Like always he leans against the window. It’s morning, he sighs, so boring. He hates it.

She moves, he sees, the light shines, through her windows, across...the street.

Pink hair, messed, moving, she stretches, he smiles, then frowns. Why? He doesn’t know. He hates it. He lets his head fall against the window, it bangs.

She walks down the stairs, he watches, her hair is messy, he hates it.

More stairs, she walks, one at a time, then down again. Too many windows, he thinks. Then up. Why?

He wonders. He smiles.

He looks away, she dresses, he smiles, he hates this. He’s smiling, why? She amuses him. He’s bored, he looks back. She changed. Black...again. He waits.

Money, phone, keys, he frowns, she’s leaving?

She walks down the stairs again, the door, in front of her warehouse, it opens, she leaves.

The truck, it starts, he frowns, she’s gone…

Alone. He’s so alone.

She’s odd, he thinks. Why move here? He’s here, he knows but his Uncle, that’s why. Escape from Suna.

Assassinations, something like hat, people killing him, you know, that stuff. He hates it here. It’s cold.

But her, why here? Just her, no one else, she’s alone, like him. He wonders.

No friends? Pink hair, probably, but pretty? Not her.

He waits. She doesn’t come back. He gets angry.

Where is she? He moves around the room, he looks back at the window, nope, not yet. He walks to his room, then back, not yet.

He waits, he looks, her truck! He gets up from the floor, he watches, she parks, closer now, she gets out. Things in the back, she bought something, pots?

He wonders, he watches, she takes one pot, two pot, three inside. The dirt, then closes the door, he watches. 

The roof, she moves, one at a time, sets them close to the edge, she returns with dirt, a bucket. So weak.

Each pot, one then two then three, gets dirt. He watches. Seeds, she pours the seeds. Each pot has a different packet, he waits. She waters them. She looks, nothing happened.

He scoffs, she did it wrong. Does she know?

He smiles.

She wants plants? He likes cacti. He watches, she looks, nothing happens. He wonders what she is growing, how long, when, he waits.

He smiles.

Strange, she is. His neighbor? His Uncle, home soon, in a month, he wonders. College, a month, he hates it, so boring, no challenge, he wonders.

He smiles.


	8. Chapter 8

Sasuke sat at his brother’s desk at the precinct looking through the file his brother had prepared for him.

“You know this is an invasion of her privacy little brother don’t you?” Itachi asked him for the tenth time that week.

“Hn.”

“She needs space, she needs to be alone right now, you should honor her wishes, respect her decision to move, to find another place. To forget.” Itachi continues.

“Hn.”

“Let me go instead, maybe you shouldn’t go the first time, it might be too much for her.” Itachi offers.

“No, so you can be the hero, so you can be the shoulder for her to cry on, heal her? I’m not a little kid anymore big brother, I know what you’re trying to do.” Sasuke growls at his brother.

“Do you.” Itachi sits back in his chair and watches his little brother passively.

“Yea, you want to be her knight in shining armour, save her from her depression, her loneliness, then take advantage of her.” Sasuke sneers.

“I would never take advantage of her, as you call it, but yes, I would be there for her. Unlike you, remember, you’re the one who came to me when you couldn’t find her.” Itachi said smugly.

“You're a freaking detective!” Sasuke printed the file with her phone number and address on it, grabbing it off the printer when it was done, folded it and put it in his pocket.

“Thanks Itachi, but I can handle it, after all she’s my friend.” Sasuke gets up out of the chair and heads for the door.

“Just be careful Sasuke, she is hurting right now, grieving. Her parents, they...didn’t die in a car crash or something, they were brutally murdered.” Itachi warns his little brother but he is already out the door.

Shisui walks into Itachi’s office, sits in the chair Sasuke just vacated and crosses his arms over his chest leaning back.

“You know that’s not going to end well, you’re evil Itachi.” Shisui grins at his cousin.

“It’s time he learns, he can’t have everything and not every girl will fall at his feet when he flashes them that smile of his.” Itachi says as he pulls his long hair from the elastic band that held it.

“More like, you’re setting him up to fail so you can swoop in later and help her pick up the pieces.” Shisui quirks an eye at his cousin who is finger combing his hair now.

“I have always been there for her, she just didn’t know it all the time.” Itachi defends himself.

“And now you mean to let her know?” Shisui guessed.

“She’s older now, she had her parents brutally murdered by some psychopath, she could be targeted, there was no known motive, she needs me more than ever.” Itachi hummed as he twisted the elastic back around his hair in a low ponytail.

“Whatever you say cuz.” Shisui uncrossed his arms and laid them on the desk resting his chin on them.

“So, when are you going to drop in to say “hi” to her?” Shisui asked.

“Not yet. I sent her flowers.” Itachi said quietly.

“Smooth.” Shisui grinned.

“Condolence flowers, so she knows I care.” Itachi gave his cousin a hard stare.

“Of course Itachi.” Shisui sighed and left him alone in his office.

Itachi sat down behind his desk and pulled open the bottom drawer, flicking a small latch aside in the back revealing a hidden compartment. He leaned over and reached back into the desk, pulling out a photo, taken a year ago of him and Sakura at the beach. 

She wore a modest black bikini, straw hat and a smile. He stood beside her, his hand on the small of her back, their arms entwined, a half smile on his lips. He sighed and put the photo back where it belonged, hidden, like his feelings for her, for so many years.

Itachi picked up his phone.

“Yes, I would like to place an order for flowers, roses, yes red, uh, two dozen, yes, to be delivered in two weeks, yes, thank you, put it on the same card, yes, goodbye.”

Itachi hung up the phone and sat quietly for a moment thinking.

He would wait for her to call him.


	9. Chapter 9

They came at four pm. She had been waiting. They knocked unsure of the address. It was a warehouse. She answered they smiled, she opened the door, they came in.

Up, up , up they went,until they reached the top. Then up again, they set it down on the floor of her loft, they looked around, she watched, they smiled, she tipped them, they left.

She pulled the plastic off of the mattress and ran her hands over the softness. She smiled.

Pulling here , fluffing there, she made her bed. Perfect, she thought. A blanket, on top of the sheet, she tucked the sides in.

It was against the bars of the stand for her loft. No new loft needs be made, she frowned, the metal, she’d paint it. Black.

Lights she thought, like stars she knew, fiber optics, she smiled. In and out around and down, she wound them, until there were no more. She plugged them into an extension cord, up and around the bottom pole to the top. When she slept, she would be surrounded by stars.

She smiled.

Knock knock knock

“Anyone here?” A male, a shout.

“Coming!” She yelled, and ran. Step and after step, one, two three stairs down.

She opened the door, a man, with flowers, he bowed, she bowed.

“Haruno Sakura?” He asked.

“Yes”, she said.

“For you, have a good day!” He smiled, she smiled, he left.

“For me?” She frowned.

A card. She opened it…

...You’re not alone, no matter how far you go…..Itachi U….

She stood, he’d found her...of course he did, he was Itachi Uchiha.

She sighed. She smelled, they were roses, red…...Ino had told her, love.

He was Itachi Uchiha.

She took them up the stairs, set them on her table, unwrapped them and looked at them. They were beautiful, smelled devine, so fragile and soft, so wonderfully scented...from Itachi Uchiha. The card, she kept, in her drawer, at the desk. A picture, the beach, she smiled, a year ago, she frowned, too long, Itachi...

“Itachi.” she whispered.

I’m not alone? She was.

But the roses....from Itachi....she smiled, always there for her, so good to her, her and Sasuke.

He was Itachi Uchiha.


	10. Chapter 10

Green glared out from under blood red. He watched as they pulled up, he scowled they got out, they talked he waited, they knocked. She answered.

Pink hair, blowing in the summer breeze, two men, they smiled, he hated them.

A mattress, they picked it up, he smiled, she would sleep. They went in. She held open the door.

The stairs, so many stairs, they climbed, she led them, the loft, they set it down.

They smiled, she smiled, she tipped them, they left.

He watched her pull sheets from a box, so normal...she’s normal, unlike you, unlike him.

He hated it, so normal. The pink, abnormal, he smiled.

She pulled the covers, they went taunt across the new mattress, she sighed, he watched, a blanket, smoothed, looked soft, he wondered...was it?

Then she left, came back, with lights, she strung them, no cord, she moved, came back, long cord...extension, she plugged, she moved, she wound, up and down, what was it?

Lights, like stars, briefly, she checked, they looked, like stars. He wondered, why? She has a roof. He’d seen her, the stars, that night, a smile, their eyes, her green, his teal...the stars. She smiled.

At him.

He watched her, moving, then stilled, another car, a person, a male, he growled, too close, too many, so many, too many, by her, his….neighbor.

Teal eyes narrowed, flowers. For her, the male left, she stayed, a card, in her hand, small...white, she read itm she paused, she stood still, he watched…..

She smiled, he frowned, who?

She went inside, the flowers, to the table, they moved...she moved, the desk, the card and she paused, doing what?

He wondered…

Who?


	11. Chapter 11

Sasuke sat on the edge of his bed staring at the paper he had printed out at the precinct Itachi had put together for him.

It had her new cell number, her address and her class schedule for the Fall on it. He looked over the classes she would be taking...all medical or science related except for a creative writing class and a music class. He thumbed the paper while he thought. They didn’t seem like electives she would normally take.

She wasn’t a writer, in fact, she hated it. 

She had played the violin, if his memory served him well, but it had been so long ago, did she even remember how to play one anymore?

Sasuke went over to his desk and typed in her address, he frowned. It was an industrial address. That couldn’t be right, why would she move into...a warehouse? It looked like a warehouse from it’s street view. It had to be the wrong address, either that or Itachi was messing with him. 

Pulling out his cell , he typed her number into it and saved it. He took a picture of her classes for the fall and saved it as her contact picture. How long, how long does one wait to call a person who left and said very specifically they never wanted to see anyone from Konoha again ever?

Sasuke sighed. A week maybe two?


	12. Chapter 12

Sakura brought one pail at a time up into her living quarters. Black paint, lots of it. One by one each pail stacked against the wall, until there were twelve total.

Slowly she took out the brushes she had purchased, and laid them side by side, one big one small. One pail of blood red paint, for the kitchen.

She moved to the kitchen, one pail, one brush, each in a hand and popped the lid to the red pail of paint, dipped the brush and started painting. No music, just her, one stroke at a time, painting over the cracked white and greys of the walls of her kitchen, two walls.

One brick, one drywall. Now red. It was a small nook of a kitchen, barely one pail covered it, one coating , no more, no less. She stood back...satisfied.

She turned and looked around, more like home...she smiled, she felt….more at home.

The wall of the most windows, she stood in front of it, looking at each window, she sighed and opened them. A slight breeze, the sound of traffic, sunlight, flooded her senses and she smiled.

She popped the top of the first pail of black paint, the window wall, would be black.

Stroke after stroke, until the sun set and she needed to turn on the lights, she painted. A ladder, for the higher spaces, an extension, for the very higher places, by evening, she finished. Ladder away, paint away, brushes washed and set on the balcony to dry, she stood and looked.

Small kitchen red, window wall was black, more like home with every wall painted.

She smiled.

White, the other two walls, would be white. The natural black and grey marbled brick of her wall that shared her kitchen would remain, and lights, more lights. Tomorrow, the store, she would go, get more, hanging ones, long lights, that would hang, from different lengths.

Then her lab, then her garage, her home, one month until school, one month until normal...her life...she was alive after all.

That night, the roof, she sat and watched, the stars, they were bright, she smiled.

A blanket this time, laid out she lay, looking up into the sky, so big.

A noise, she looked, the same man, or boy? Her age? He stood, looking up at the sky, like her.

He turned, she smiled, he nodded, she waved, he held up a hand and turned back, to the sky. They watched, together, that night, but separately, together, under the stars.

...and she wondered, his name, and if he lived like her, in a warehouse, and why.

His clothes, loose, wraps, Suna...Suna, here? Why? He was alone like her, she wondered why…

Tomorrow, she would go, she would visit them...a week, it had been a week, and she had promised. The precinct, she needed to go, to see, maybe Itachi? She’d ask.

Right now though, she stared up into the sky, alone, except for him, across the street, at the stars and smiled.


	13. Chapter 13

His eyes kept going back to the flowers on her table. She moved here and there, moving pails of paint around her third floor. His eyes though, kept going back to the flowers.

Did she like them, were they special, who sent them to her...where were they?

No one had visited her yet. He would know, he watched.

Stroke after stroke her kitchen turned red, how interesting he thought, one color then another just like that, like magic. Erased, then appeared out of nowhere if you blinked.

He liked it, the red, it was fitting he thought.

She painted quickly, he noticed, Stroke after stroke, precise, direct, uniformed, interesting.

The flowers were red, like the paint, did she paint the kitchen to match them?

He looked, yes, a match...she moved, she stood , she walked, to the middle of the room, and stood seemingly looking...at him?

On the wall, with the most windows on it, she stood and stared then moved, the paint...She took the top off and again, she moved for him, stroke after stroke she continued to paint, black this time, he hated it.

Then a ladder, she’s short, he smiled, shorter than him, and he was short, for a male, he frowned.

An extension, the ceiling, no to it, she’d stop, he knew, but no more? She had paused and climbed down, so agile, so refined, he grinned….with teeth, no one to see, it was dark now, no lights behind him, only in front, as he watched her, for hours.

The flowers, he hated them, so red, too soft, too...there.

He sighs, she’s gone, he moves to the roof, it’s dark now. The stars, he smiles as he sits.

He hears her, she climbs to the roof, to watch, it’s like...they are together, watching together, he smiles, he looks, she’s looking.

They smile, she waves, a hand, he raises it , he supposes he should, a greeting? A friend, almost, he thinks...a new sensation, familiarity...the stars, twice now, he smiles.


	14. Chapter 14

Sakura walked slowly. She didn’t want to be here, she wished she were somewhere else. Maybe she wasn’t here, maybe this was a dream...more like a nightmare...hum…

The automatic doors opened and she stepped inside. Her green eyes adjusted to the lack luster light that shone harshly through dimmed and grimy light panes that lined the yellowed ceilings of the offices…..she was in hell.

Hell was not the all consuming masses of the reprobate degenerates, no...hell was dingy linoleum and old coffee, stale doughnuts and uniformed fire breathers. The Uchiha precinct of Konoha.

She made her familiar way to the office she knew all too well. He was there, in the same seat, at the same desk, wearing the same uniform as she remembered on that...one day...on that...one night.

Her hand shot out and gripped the door frame, her breath came quick, her vision blurred, then...he was there.

“Sakura…” he said her name like a curse, like a tormented soul cast into the oblivion that was her hell….ah poor Itachi, she thought, the things he feels he must deal with, mainly her and her basket case of disjointed emotions….

“I’m…” She got out before she blacked out in his arms.

Itachi stood bent over impossibly low holding her to his chest, his hand behind her head least it hit against the hard floor, protectively gripping the fabric of her shirt that covered her back, he stood slowly drawing her up along with him. Her apple scented shampoo wafted over his face as he pulled her up closer to his chest, he resisted the sudden urge to duck his head and bury his nose in her soft pink locks.

A compromising situation to be sure. She hung limply in his arms and he wondered briefly...would it be worth it to just disappear with her, to take her home….yes and no.

As if sensing his indecision, his cousin chose to walk by his office at that exact moment….paused...smirked….leaned against the wall outside of his office….and opened his mouth to say something, no doubt witty but inappropriate.

“Don’t even.” Itachi bit out of the side of his mouth as he carried the woman to the small couch that sat unused, unappreciated and clean at the side of his office and laid her down. He proceeded under the careful and nosey eye of his wavy haired cousin to pull a blanket from under his desk and draped it over the girl before turning a knowing eye to his...friend who stood smirking...now inside of his office and shut the door.

“Soooooooooooo?” Shisui said dramatically, sitting on the end of the small couch, pushing Sakura’s legs to the back to do so.

“She showed up, and fainted.” Itachi said defensively under the hard glare and curiosity of his cousin.

“Hn.” a characteristic reply for an Uchiha, but not for a Shisui…

“It must be a panic attack, she started to hyperventilate as soon as she entered my office, or at least, tried to enter, she didn’t quite make it inside my office before fainting.” Itachi watched the pink haired woman breathing in and out, much more calmly than she had been not three minutes ago.

Shiui leaned across Sakura’s body and pushed the hair off her face to get a better look at her. Itachi tensed but stood still otherwise and watched his cousin narrowly through half hooded, half knowing eyes.

“Remember when we first saw her Itachi? She had just jumped down from the monkey bars and tackled little Sasuke. She had fallen on top of him screaming bloody murder and then proceeded to punch him relentlessly in the face.” Shisui grinned at the woman, and then his cousin.

“I remember.” Itachi said sitting at the chair by his desk, spinning and locking eyes with his friend grinning a very uncharacteristic Itachi grin.

“She was amazing, even then...wasn’t she?” Shisui gave his cousin a knowing smile.

“And has grown into her personality since then if I say so.” Itachi said with a smile of fondness on his face.

So gentle was the situation that both men averted their eyes from one another looking at anything other than...one another. Their eyes settling on the woman on the couch.

“Do you know why she came here today?” Shisui asked.

“To see if there were any leads I assume, she didn’t get to say anything before…” Itachi waved his hand to her unmoving figure.

“Ah.” Shisui tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, letting his hand and fingers trail down her smooth skinned face much to Itachi’s annoyance.

“Well, I’ll leave you be then, tell me when she wakes, or better yet, have her come by my office before she leaves.” Shisui rose to leave casting the limp figure one last glance of...curiosity, longing...interest?

Itachi stiffened.

“If she feels up for it, I will tell her.” Itachi said formally to his lifelong cousin and friend.

The glint that flashed in Shisui’s eyes told Itachi enough and more than he wanted to know.

“Of course.” Shisui inclined his head, Itachi style and left the office reluctantly.

Itachi stood and took the abandoned spot at the end of the couch and watched the woman breathe. His phone rang and he cringed slightly willing it to go silent...it did. He tucked the blanket up closer around her shoulders, his fingers grazing her neck and he sighed, if only he had the courage to touch her so...when she was awake, but her eyes, so green, so direct and ever observant...intimidated him

Itachi Uchiha....

Itachi rose to lock his door, no more interruptions. He shut off his phone sending all incoming calls to voicemail, no interruptions. He sat back down on the couch with a book until she woke up on her own...no interuptions.

He would talk to her, tell her all he knew, assure her, relax her, make her see that running was not her only option, with...no interuptions. Then, he would take her home, in her own truck if need be and get a cab back to Konoha.


	15. Chapter 15

Her dream had been intense and she woke with such intensity she was surprised she hadn’t woken up the man sitting at the end of the couch she found herself on.

She ran her hands over her face. It had been a dream right? She sat up slowly, her head was pounding, not in pain but from the intense blood flowing through her veins, she was hot and felt sick but...comforted as she looked at the man at the end of the couch. She wasn’t alone.

Sakura took one and then another calming slow breath. Oxygen hit her blood stream in waves, she could feel the life’s blood pushing through her system, her chakra swirling in and out of her core, ebbing and flowing like a small current in a stream.

Something brushed her leg, a hand, Itachi’s. He moved in his sleep as if he knew she was stressed, needed him. He moved his hand in a twitch, reaching out hesitantly in his sleep for her. It felt nice.

Her green eyes searched his features, his face was relaxed, so unusual yet, becoming on him. He was normally calm, yes, but relaxed, no. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him look so relaxed. His lips moved, twitched, then pursed slightly, as if...he were speaking.

Was he dreaming she wondered.

Her own dream was leaving her, like all dreams do but one thought remained, him. Red hair of a shocking hue, blood, a deep life giving, life taking color of red and eyes as teal as the Mediteranean sea, and as deep as the rift in her hell.

Who, she didn’t know. Her thoughts drifted to a rooftop scenario, but she shook the fog of her dream from her head and it disappeared.

She looked around the office, it was quiet, what time was it?

Itachi twitched again in his sleep and she wondered at his sleeping form...Itachi Uchiha was asleep beside her, next to her, at the end of a couch by her, and she was awake...her first thought...she could kill him if she wanted to.

She moved her back up straight, leaned forward to look at him more closely, little opportunity in the past taunted her to such a bold gesture, her hand reached out, his lips….soft looking.

Coal eyes opened to stare through her green ones. So, maybe not ...if she wanted to. She held his gaze, her arm, her hand still in the air between them. He lifted his hand and took hers in it, falling, their hands falling onto the blanket between them.

She looked down, at their hands.

“Sakura.” His voice came out deep, fragmented between curiosity at her actions and...want? Did he want her to touch him?

Blood rushed to her cheeks, she had been found out, caught in the intimate action of taking liberties...she was embarrassed, but pleased?

“You stayed with me.” Was what came out of her mouth, not what her head had planned to say but he seemed to understand none the less.

A nod of his head, hair falling half over his eyes and face, he pushed it back, a lazy gesture that pulled at her stomach. So unfair, the Uchiha...so handsome with such carelessness.

“I will always be here for you.” He said...the words as careless as his gesture...given so freely, so loosely.

If he had been anyone else, she wouldn’t have believed him. If he had been anyone else, she would have left by then.

If he had been anyone else…..she would have pulled her hand from his but she didn’t.

He was Itachi Uchiha.

“Thank you.” Two words, a simple meaning.

“You’re welcome.” Two words, not as simple as they claimed because his eyes, bore into hers.

Not too much, not too quickly, he warned himself. Hold back, for her sake he said.

More, she begged, not realizing until now how very alone she had really felt, more she begged him with her eyes, her heartbeat.

He pulled his hand from hers.

No, she screamed in her head, more Itachi, please.

He hesitated.

Had he heard her? Had she spoken out loud?

He moved one leg then another pulling away from her, standing and moving to sit in the desk chair...by his desk.

Restraint.

No. She shook her head. He was there but...she was alone...again.

“I came for the case update.” She said without prompt.

“I assumed, there is no news, I have found nothing, forgive me.” He said,

Nothing. She wondered what that really meant. What was nothing? Was it a dead end, was it lack of effort, was it hopeless?

“Nothing.” She said for herself but he heard her.

“I will keep looking.” He made a promise without saying, “I promise.”

She nodded.

“The flowers.” She looked up in time to see his eyes twitch.

“Were not to remind you of your loss, but to remind you………………………….that you’re not alone.” He finally completed his sentence.

“Not alone…….but I am alone Itachi.” She looked at him again, her gaze strong, direct and daunting.

“I am alone.” She repeated more forcefully.

“Only if you want to be.” He all but sighed at her anger that he could see growing in her eyes.

“Is it over yet? In your mind?” He asked, she blanched.

So much for restraint he could have hit himself in the head.

“You….” She stopped and stood up, the blanket falling off of her slight form, she shivered at the loss of heat, the air conditioning in the office was frigid.

“I see nothing in your eyes and the more I see the less I like, is it over yet? In your head?” he asked her.

She stood still, unmoving, no sound.

Uchiha.

“Sacrifice yourself, and let me have what’s left, I know that I can find the fire in your eyes.” Itachi stepped toward her.

“Let me in.” He kissed her mouth.

No restraint...he didn’t care.

She ran. She ran from his office, out the front doors followed by open mouths, stares and calls of concern, she ran to her truck, started the engine and drove…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes...Breaking Benjamin...


	16. Chapter 16

Teal eyes followed the small truck down the road. It’s body getting larger and larger the closer it got to the warehouses.

She was back.

He watched her pull up to her garage, get out and open it, then get back into the truck, pull in then shut it.

She had never parked in the garage before, he wondered...why now?

She climbed up the stairs, one flight, slowly as if in a daze. He watched her stop at the top of the flight of stairs, hesitating. She moved off of the landing onto her second floor, empty save for a few boxes and a folding table.

He sat down in the window once he was sure she would be on the floor for a while. Box after box she opened.

Unfolding the table she set small glass objects he recognized as vials and tubes on it. He cocked his head, she was...a scientist, like his Uncle Sasori?

Box after box, emptied, he watched, he waited. She stood and looked over her hoard of glass and wooden stands.

She breathed and he breathed.

One by one each vial made its way into a wooden stand, like his Uncle’s...the familiar scene was reassuring to him.

Placing each stand in order on the table, she ran out of room. He wondered what next.

She stopped and looked around the floor, so much space, so little to occupy it. Her thoughts were clear on her face, it was a marvel to him.

She wanted shelves, perhaps around the perimeter of the walls? It struck him.

A lab...she was making a lab. He turned and looked around his own second floor, a lab...his Uncle’s. There were counters all along the perimeter of the back wall and one adjacent.

Mortars and pestles lined up along the counter, here and there, glass vials with liquids, dried herbs side by side. He turned back to watch the pink hair as she swept the room with her eyes.

She was planning a layout, he wondered...when. Would she build it herself?

The look of pain gone now from her face he saw when she had arrived. Busy he thought, she needed to keep busy.

Understanding...dawning, he knew.

He was not busy, restless, so restless and bored. He watched as she measured, he watched as she moved back and forth, planning.

A paper, a pencil, jotting...he watched. Pictures, her phone, she pursed her lips, shook her head, her mouth moved...he watched.

She was smart, he thought, the way she moved, her planning, she moved from the outside in, no wasted movements, no wasted space. Methodical, that was the word he had been looking for. She was methodical, like him.

“Interesting.” He said out loud.

His eyes took in a new object barreling down the road. A truck...with men in it. It slowed. It saw her. It stopped in front of her warehouse.

Two men, they watched her through her window, like him, but they...were strangers. They didn’t belong here he thought, and he thought...they didn’t belong in front of her home, his home, his friend...even though they had never spoken.

She was his, his neighbor.

The men got out. They looked around, he stepped back, into the shadows on his room and watched.

They went to her door, he moved.

They knocked, she turned, he watched as she stood still, then walked down the stairs.

He moved, and was at the door to his own home, a crack, the light coming in and he watched.

She opened the door, the men stood, they spoke, he heard not what...they moved...he moved.

A threat.

She screamed, he moved.

Blood, so much blood.


	17. Chapter 17

The ringing in her ears wouldn’t stop, the pounding of her heart throbbed in her head like the ringing combined to a menacing pain in her neck that shot down her spine. Blood, there was so much blood.

Her eyes were closed. Red splattered out across the back of her lids as her breathing told her...she was everywhere. Chakra snapped and crackled around her.

“Are you alright?” Deep...his voice was deep and calm.

She opened one eye to see the boy...no man, from the other roof standing before her.

His arms were folded across his chest, his stance open but firm, his eyes watchful , alert, a shinobi...like her.

His teal eyes looked down at her...calm, so calm. His face a light white gold, his eyes a teal almost, light opaque and...beautiful, she groaned.

“Are you alright?” His deep voice came to her again and she realized, she was staring.

“Yes.” She said, her voice small seeming and vague.

Both eyes open now she sat up, she had been laying down?

Blood, so much blood.

“Did you?” She looked up to the man with the teal eyes and white gold skin in inquiry.

A twitch of the mouth, a hard stare, was he mad at her?

“You.” deep voice said.

She looked, two bodies, one on top of the other. A flash, a look, oh it seemed to say, registration quick and unforgiving...me.

Blood...so much of it. She rose, she slipped, his hand, struck out and caught her. He grimaced, she flinched, he gripped her as he pulled up and up, she stood, he let go.

A look of...confusion on his smooth face, his eyes outlined in coal, his eyes bright in the backdrop of the night that lined his eyes, so teal, like the Mediteranean Sea. A flash, her dream.

“I dreamt of you.” She said,

“Did you?” He said,

They stared, he wanted, she spoke no more.

“Blood.” She stated.

“A lot.” He agreed.

“They’re dead.” She said,

“So it seems.” He agreed.

She waited, he watched.

“Did I really?” She asked.

A smile. A nod.

She smiled. He smiled.

“I need to get rid of the bodies.” She said,

“Let me help you.” He offered.

“Okay.” She bent to pull at the legs of the first man, he bent and took the arms.


	18. Chapter 18

He sat across from her and watched her stir the milk into her tea. Her eyes were green, more green than he had originally thought. He waited for her to speak. She didn’t. He looked around her living area, the red of the wall, the black of the other wall, the not yet painted walls, the flowers on the kitchen table between them.

“Who sent them?” He asked.

An odd question no doubt.

“Itachi.” She answered.

He nodded.

“Who is Itachi?” 

“A friend, from...my past.” She said,

They sat in silence.

“Thank you.” She said,

“You’re welcome.” He said,

They sat there looking at one another.

She was still. He thought, and silent, like him. They didn’t move, no more talking, they breathed.

He’s quiet. She thought, Like her, she liked it. They sat.

She took a sip of her tea, he watched her lips part and take in the green, the same color of her eyes.

She sighed as the heat of the tea warmed her. He noticed the strain leave her eyes. She slumped back a little in her chair and closed her eyes.

Foolish, he thought...she doesn’t know me.

Sakura opened her eyes to teal. 

“You like to look at the stars.” A statement.

“I do.” he said.

“I saw you.” She said,

“I saw you.”

She smiled.

“Why?” He asked her.

She cocked her head to the side.

“I came here to escape.”

“You mean to run away.” He said,

“You don’t know me.” She said,

“I know enough.” He said,

She frowned. He smiled.

“What are you growing?” He asked.

“Vegetables.”

“Green ones.” He said,

“You watch me.”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re here.” He said,

She nodded.

He smiled.

“The men.” She started.

“Will never be found.” He said,

They drank the rest of their tea in silence.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stone sour

They were wrapping around her, the motion, the gripping, trapped, she was trapped...they hissed and slithered, they ducked and wove...escape, she needed to escape.

A shadow, a figure, he stood there looking, no eyes, the shadows of nothing set inside his head, looking through her.

It felt like forever, forever feels like home, she sat all alone inside her head.

How did she feel, that was the question, not an easy answer, alone inside her head.

The body moved but her mind remained the same, a dream...she realized, it was all a dream.

Weaving in and out and around her fingers, like sand slipping through her mind, cold compressed, threatening, soft, caressing, her mind exploded inside the confines of her heart...forever never felt so far away.

Heat, it pooled, it pressed, the heat, it strung it linked a suffocating mass of coils to her chest, the pressure it built, it streamed, it pounded, her heart, no no no no!

She screamed…...she thrashed wildly, the knife she found, her hand a grip beyond, the….pressure….

She cut, she tore, the heat it flowed , it seeped into her...eyes. Pink flashed and spread, red, dripped and splattered, green encased her vision then black...breathing shallow, blackness.

Red faded in and out of her waning vision, a blur, a grunt a...touch...teal...teal….teal….

“Sakura……….” A deeper voice than before. Not human...feral….controlling…..begging and pleading with blood and …..darkness.

“Gaara…….” An acknowledgement.

He smiled.

Admittance….

Acceptance….


	20. Chapter 20

She was dreaming he could see, he watched her thrash and moan and strain. His hand pressed up against the cool glass of the night as he looked through her window.

“Break break break.” A monotone of monotony ran through his head as his face joined his hand.

Eyes wide and wanting, staring and hoping, come he thought, come , release it, scream for me he sought her release, he wanted her fear...come to me, scream for me...he pleaded through the glass, he didn’t know how much time had passed, it seemed like forever….

He could feel her pressure, building, the threat, the pain, the pressure, loose, lose it, let it go, he chanted silently in his head…

She screamed, his eyes closed his sand whirled, the seals broke, easy so easy, he smiled, his feet at her bedside he reached out to her, her body quivered and shook, she strained against the sheet restricted, confined.

His eyes danced over her sweat, her pain, the cringe and fear, the crease of the sheet, the sweat on her temple, the strain of her body, thrust up and against...the barrier of the waking and the dream…

Bent over...an odd angle, he watched, her face contorted in rage and then, nothing a blankness, one eyes, then two...to see, to gaze, to acknowledge...him.

A step back, a panic, a need, to what? To run? To hide?

Impertinence!

He stayed, he leaned, he watched, she closed her eyes, she sighed, she mumbled, he touched.

She moved against his hand. He smiled.

Connection.

Acknowledgement, acceptance...him, her them, there, here now...it.

Two green eyes opened, a nod, a smile, his hers, his...his...his… he watched...his.

His hand left her cheek. He stood, watching, she slept...he waited, she slept.

Blood, she had cut herself in her struggle, tatters, the confines, her sheets. He stood.

One finger traced the red, one finger met his mouth...sweet.

So sweet.

More….

More.

Again, one finger, blood, so sweet, her blood was so...sweet. A lick, his tongue, he stopped, she moved, he left.

Sweet.

More.

“Mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how many people have read tot his point...I think most stopped reading after chapter 4 lol...I have been told it is a hard read if you like my other works...I did warn you, it is a selfish fic...mostly for me.....but if you do like it, I am glad...:) Thank you HatakeSun, for my only Kudos:P hahahahahahahahahahaha


	21. Chapter 21

She was on the roof of her home when he pulled up. She watched with narrowed eyes as he stopped, looked and listened.

He knew she was there, she knew he knew she knew but she still refused to move.

Sasuke got out of his car and stood leaning back against the door he had just shut and looked up...casually.

Coal met Spring green as they exchanged...greetings.

He waited and watched her, she looked down on him from her considerable height, he sighed and lept to the sill of the first window, then the second, then the third and flipped up onto the roof.

Her hair blew back at his less than subtle advance and she frowned. How had he found her?

“Itachi told me where you lived.” 

“Ah.” was all the noise she made, all that he deserved for disturbing her peace.

Sasuke sat beside her on the roof, their legs dangling off , over the side.

She looked over at him...surprised.

“You would risk your designer suit to sit on a dirty roof next to me?”

“I would risk a lot to sit beside you again Sakura.”

Sincere? Maybe...was she impressed, hardly.

“Don’t you feel lonely living in your own little world?” He asked her.

“Don’t you feel powerless living in other people’s worlds?” She countered.

He smirked, witty...she had always been the witty one.

“I’m an Uchiha.” He said as if it explained everything...and maybe it did, for he was...and she knew….the Uchiha really did live in their own little world.

“When are you coming home Sakura?” He asked.

“I am home Sasuke, as you said...Itachi gave you my new address.” She looked up at the clouds, flashes of a pineapple ponytailed boy of her youth flooded her mind and she smiled...Shikamaru.

She linked her fingers and threw her hands behind her head and laid back to watch the clouds float by over head.

“Fall classes start soon, are you ready?” He asked her.

Ah, she thought, not getting anywhere with the serious questions, going for the easy route...so Sasuke like.

“Of course.”

“Itachi told me two people were reported disappearing around here, you aren’t safe here Sakura.” Sasuke was trying again to make ...a...point.

This wasn’t Konoha, this was out of Itachi’s jurisdiction...which ment, he had been watching her, or rather, had someone watching her?

“I’m safe enough.” She said looking over at the windows across the street where she swore she saw a flash of red, she smiled.

“No bodies were found.” He continued.

“Say what you want to say Sasuke.” She was annoyed. 

Annoyed he wouldn’t really say what he wanted, annoyed he was here, annoyed with Itachi for telling him where she lived...just annoyed.

“I’m sorry.” He said at last after a long and desperate pause of breaths and sighs.

“An apology without change is just a manipulation Sasuke.” She refused to look at him, if she didn’t look at him, look into his eyes, maybe he wasn’t really here, maybe she could pretend this wasn’t happening and maybe, maybe she would forgive him...eventually.

“I wasn’t there for you, when, they were killed. You came to the compound and I turned you away...I’m sorry.” He said,

“Forget it Sasuke, you aren’t good with those things, I was a mess, it’s fine. It’s my fault, I should have known better.” She watched a particularly large cloud float by, it looked like...betrayal.

She jumped to her feet and planted them firmly on the roof of her home and threw her hands to the sun, clouds slipped through her fingers in her head.

“What are you doing?” He asked her, bewildered at her sudden movement and odd behavior.

“Nothing that concerns you Uchiha.” She tossed the words at him and turned to her hatch and went inside.

Sasuke sat there on the roof alone for a moment before following her.

She was in her kitchen when he dropped down from the hatch and looked around. It was plain, it was organized, it was...Sakura.

His eyes traveled from the red of the kitchen to the black of the wall of windows and finally came to rest on the roses on her kitchen table.

“Who are those from?” He asked her pointing to the flowers.

“No one.” She turned,tea pot in hand and raised it in the silent question.

“Hn.” Was his response.

Sakura was not the flowers kind of girl, she didn’t buy them...which ment someone had, who? He wondered.

She filled the pot with water and set it over the burner. She pulled the loose leaf tea from her open shelf and set it beside the range. Turning she took two mugs down from a different shelf and set them beside the tea.

Turing with her back against the counter she watched him watch her.

“Why are you really here?” She asked him, her fingers drumming on her arms as they crossed before her chest.

He shuffled his feet under her hard stare and opened his mouth but no sound came out.

Finally he said…”I missed you.”

“Missed me.” She all but scoffed.

“Yea, I missed you Sakura.” he looked up at her and she would have gasped at the emotion on his face if she hadn’t been so angry.

“I moved for a reason Sasuke.”

“I.” He tried to start again but there was nothing left to say.

“I shouldn’t have come.” He walked to her, to hug her like they used to but she didn’t move, made no gesture of any kind so his arms fell limp to his side, her eyes met his in dismissal and he sighed, he left, the door clicking behind him,...three stories down.

The sound of his car starting, the gravel under the tires and she was alone again, she sighed.

His actions were contradictory.


	22. Chapter 22

She took her cup of tea and sat beside her book on the floor of her living quarters. Sunlight shone in through the window. Her head rested against the warm glass as she sipped her tea.

He watched her pick up her book, he watched her flip to the page she had left off reading earlier that morning. There were two mugs...he disappeared in a whirl of sand, breaking through her seals and stepped softly out of his sand before her.

She looked up at him. She wasn’t surprised.

She smiled at him, he nodded. Slowly, she got to her feet, setting her book down on a small side table and went to the kitchen. She came back with a mug of tea for him. He took it with another shifting of his head and sat down on the floor beside her.

She picked up her book again and started reading. They sat in a comfortable silence. She read and drank her tea. He watched her read and drank his tea.

Hours passed in this lazy comfortable manner. Their tea cups were empty. The sun was fading in the sky.

“Dinner?” She asked, breaking the silence.

He nodded, she rose and went to the kitchen, he grabbed both of their mugs and followed her.

“Do you like vegetables, rice and maybe some fried shrimp?”

He nodded, she smiled.

“Fill this to the line for me?” She handed him the rice cooker pot smiling, he took the pot and moved to her sink and filled it as she requested. He placed the pot in the maker and measured out the rice.

“Four?” He asked.

She smiled and nodded.

He liked it when she smiled. He hated the dark haired man that had invaded her privacy earlier.

“Who was that earlier?” He asked after the pot and rice were set and cooking.

“Someone from my other life.” She sounded closed off and she had stopped smiling.

He nodded to himself, she hadn’t wanted him there, as he thought, good.

Sakura cut the vegetables up and threw them into the pan, added the oil, added the peeled shrimp, turned the heat to med lo.

She stirred it once then stood to face him.

He looked at her looking at him.

“You’re from Suna.” She said.

“I know.”

“Red hair, teal eyes, sand...you’re the Kazekage’s son Sabaku no Gaara.” She said.

“I am.”

“Why live here? She asked him.

“Why not?” he countered and she smiled.

“Why not indeed.” She laughed.

It was a light laugh...he liked it.

They sat down to eat fifteen minutes later. She spooned out the rice, he pulled chop stick from her cup on the counter, she got napkins, he poured them juice.

“How is your lab coming?” He asked almost normally.

“You watch me a lot don’t you.” A statement.

“I do.” A confession.

“Why?”

“I have nothing else to do.” He said,

“My lab isn’t operational yet. I still need a few things, to build a few things.” She returned to the earlier topic.

“Show me.” He said,

“After dinner.”

He nodded.

After dinner, as promised she led him to the second floor and showed him her lab. She told him about the counters she would build on the two walls, about the three tables she wanted in the center to run one by the other length wise in the middle of the room. She pointed out where the shelves would go, the cupboards and the storage room she wished to build...eventually.

He listened attentively, watched her hands and arms move through the air as she painted the vision in her head for him making it a reality. He watched as she smiled at her mental creation, watched as the muscles in her shoulders relaxed at the prospect of her lab coming together before her eyes and he smiled at her passion, her vision. 

Light, it was light.

She shone like a star, like a light in the darkest cave, like crystal underwater reflecting the sunlight from the most impossible depth, he couldn’t look enough.

He must have been staring at her so intently for he hadn’t noticed she had stopped talking and was looking at him with great regard, contemplation and curiosity.

He blushed, to his great horror...and she smiled.

His feet shuffled underneath him and he glanced off to the side to the stairs and then back at her.

“Thank you.” She said,

His look must have been one of confusion for she elaborated in her next words.

“For watching me.” She clarified her meaning with slow words for emphasis?

“I, couldn’t not...watch you...your hair...and I’m alone so, you...intrigued me.”

“I did?” She touched her wayward locks of pink and blushed.

“I hated you at first.” He blurted out.

“Oh.” She looked down at her feet and he realized belatedly it was the wrong thing to say to her.

“At first, but not now.” He added as if that made the last thing he had said all better.

Her face took on the most extraordinary look of perplexing he had ever seen on a face, not that he remembered many before he killed them, and if he did they weren’t of preplexation but fear, terror and repulsion.

“I saw you were in pain and……...it reminded me of…...myself.” He got out finally looking up to see what expression this would bring forth from her angelic face, the look he saw was nothing short of breathtaking.

Her eyes went wide then narrowed then dulled to an almost opaque sort of green, then ….flashed and rose to meet his...boldly.

“Pain.” She mused.

“And torment.” He added.

“Torment.” She whispered.

“Yes, I suppose so.” She looked at him, her eyes bright and...curious.

“Are you tormented Gaara?” She stepped toward him.

“Very.” He said as her lips pressed lightly against his.


	23. Chapter 23

Sakura woke to her phone pinging. She groaned in annoyance and looked. A text. She rolled over and ignored it.

Ping. She groaned, she looked, another text.

Who the hell was texting her? No one knew her new number.

She unlocked her phone, she looked.

Itachi: Sorry about Sasuke, he was really worried.

Itachi: I told him to wait for you to contact him, that you would if you wanted, if not, to stop bothering you.

Ping.

Itachi: I won’t call or text you anymore either, you contact who you want, when you want.

Ping.

Itachi: I sent you more flowers, last text , Promise.

Sakura set her phone on her pillow next to her and closed her eyes again. She huffed, she was awake.

She picked her phone back up and read through the texts. He was sending her more flowers? Why?

Sakura picked up her phone.

To Itachi: I’m not hiding from you. You are welcome anytime. Call or text, whatever. Thanks for the flowers Itachi, I love them.

After all, he was Itachi Uchiha.

Before the murder, she hadn’t thought of him as anything other than Sasuke’s older brother. He was a genius, a prodigy, every girl loved him, every adult respected him, everyone doted and fawned and fell all over themselves around him, but her. 

He was just Sasuke’s older brother. But then her parents had been murdered, and he was assigned to the case as the detective. She had ran to Sasuke for comfort, for friendship that night but he had turned her away, his girlfriend had been over...she had always been jealous of Sakura and Sasuke’s close friendship. The girl didn’t understand, he was like a brother to her and she was like a sister to him.

Sakura had walked back home, to yellow caution tape and do not cross, murder. Crime scene tape and nosey neighbors to find Itachi Uchiha sitting on her doorstep. She had walked up the stairs to her front door, he had held it open for her and followed her inside. She had sat at her kitchen table, her parent’s kitchen table...he had made tea, and set it down in front of her, standing at her side. She had looked up at him, he had knelt down beside her, she had thrown herself at him...he had comforted her.

He had carried her sobbing, shaking body upstairs to her room. He had laid her in her bed and climbed in after her pulling the covers up and over them both, he had stayed with her. He had woken up with her in the night as she screamed out for her mother, her father, their killer...he had pet her and held her. He had let her hit him and cry into his chest. He had kissed her head and combed her hair, he had been there for her...not Sasuke, Itachi.

For a week he had stayed with her, had been her rock her friend, he had been there for her like no one else had. Itachi, Sasuke’s brother...Itachi who she had never really talked to, never knew was so compassionate, carring. Itachi.

Itachi could send her flowers, he could call whenever he wanted, stop by whenever he wanted...he was Itachi Uchiha.


	24. Chapter 24

“Gaara, what classes are you taking?” Sakura asked over their morning coffee.

It had become their habit over the last week for him to come over in the mornings for coffee, sometimes breakfast. They would sit and talk, or not talk depending on their mood. It was nice.

“Phys 1170 Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Complex Analysis Math 463 and Biology Genetics 289, oh and two electives.” He said in his usual monotone deep voice.

“Strange.” She thought, I’m taking two of those too.

“What electives?”

“Creative writing and music.” He said,

“But, that’s...I’m taking almost the same things.” She gave him an odd look.

Gaara looked back at her as bland as ever.

“I enrolled in March of last year.” He stated knowingly.

“You can’t enroll for the fall until July.” She said narrowing her eyes at him.

“I'm the Kazekage's son.” He said as if that took care of it, and it did.

“Oh.” She said thinking. So it was more like she had copied his schedule without knowing, not the other way around.

“What?” He asked looking at her knowing perfectly well, “what”.

“Nothing.” She said embarrassed.

They continued to eat their breakfast together.

“They're dying.” He said,

Sakura looked up a little disturbed but relaxed when she saw what he was looking at, her flowers.

“I suppose.” She said absently.

After breakfast she took the flowers from the vase and pulled all the petals from the stems. Setting the vase in the sink and the stems in the trash she motioned for Gaara to follow her. She stuck her hand through the hole of the plastic grocery bag she had stuffed the petals into and climbed onto her roof.

He followed.

“Here.” She handed him a handful of petals and he gave her a questioning look.

She took a handful of petals for herself and threw them into the air. Twirling in the petals that fell down around her she stopped and watched as the wind carried some of them off , up and away a smile on her face.

“Now you.” She smiled at him and he threw them into the air and watched as she spun and smiled into the petals as the wind once again picked them up and carried them away. 

She paused and watched them fly over the other roofs, over the electric lines and off into oblivion. She sighed.

Gaara watched her smile and twirl and thought she had never looked more beautiful.

“Gaara, I’m not sure if I’m ready to go back to school.” She confided in him.

“Let’s go back inside and talk.” He suggested, he could tell this might take some time.

They sat down on the couch he had gifted her, by the windowless wall in the middle of the living area.

He sat on one end of the couch and her on the other.

“Why don’t you want to go back to school?” He asked her once they were settled.

“I do, I just...don’t want to be around so many people.” She said a little embarrassed.

“We have most of the same classes, only one is different. I will be with you,...he said.

“True.” She hesitated.

“I never told you.” She paused.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready to.” He sensed her hesitation. He had gotten to know her fairly well these last few couple weeks, being observant by nature, and she was his particular interest.

“I left Konoha because...my parents were brutally murdered and I wanted to forget.” She said.

He knew that of course but he wanted her to tell him on her own. He had looked into her background, or rather, had someone look into her background for him and they had found out...a lot.

“I wasn’t home when it happened.” She felt guilty, like she ought to have been.

“Your parents were civilians.” He saw her guilt, if she had been there, they might have been alive still.

“They waited for me to leave, they knew I was a shinobi.” She gasped, the air was thinning on her, she couldn’t breathe.

“Come.” He reached out to her and she laid down, her head in his lap.

He ran her fingers through her hair relaxing her. Soothing her.

“You didn’t know did you?” He asked, he knew she hadn’t.

“No.” she said.

“You didn’t know they were coming.”

“Just because I didn’t know, just because there was nothing I could do doesn’t mean”

“That you don’t have survivor’s guilt, I know.” he said calmly, fingers massaging her head.

“You knew.”

“I did,” he said.

“After you moved in though, you had caught my interest...before.” He wanted to clarify.

“You said you were tormented.”

Ah, Gaara thought, she shared something with me...reciprocation.

“You know I’m the Kazekage’s son, and the One tail Jinchuriki…”

“Yes.” She said,

“I’m also a murderer, a monster.” His hands stilled in her hair, he waited for her to run, scream, cry out in fear.

“I know.” She said her hand rising to touch his face.

He leaned into her touch.

“I know what you’ve done, I know about the massacres, the killings, but you aren’t a monster, the person who put the beast in you, he is the monster Gaara. Like the Lord Fourth, who put the beast inside my friend Naruto, the Nine tails. You are not the first Jinchuriki I have met.” She closed her eyes.

Gaara let go of the breath he had been holding and stroked her hair again, his fingers running down over her shoulders and back up into her hair. A repetitive action, one he had never done before, but loved more and more with every stroke of her hair, every breath over his chest and every beat of her heart that beat in time with his own.

Did she know what those words had meant to him? He could only hope.


	25. Chapter 25

A kock on her door broke his trance. His fingers slid from her hair as she stood from the couch they had been resting on.

He followed her down the stairs as she opened the door.

“Haruno?” The flower delivery boy asked.

“That’s me.” Sakura took the huge box from the boy with thanks.

“What the hell, oh.” She hummed to herself as she walked to the stairs where Gaara stood waiting for her.

“More flowers?” His sensitive nose could already smell the roses, they were too sweet, it made him sick.

“Yes, from Itachi.” She knew, he had told her.

They walked back up stairs and she took the vase from the sink filling it with water again. Gaara watched as she cut each stem and placed it into the vase in different lengths. It looked like a masterpiece when she had finished.

“You did that on purpose.” His voice was flat as he looked at the flowers.

“Yes.” 

“Why?” He asked her.

Sakura paused, she understood, why the flowers not why the different lengths.

“He is worried about me.” She said and blushed.

Gaara knew then and there he hated this Itachi.

“I am here.” He crossed his arms over his chest and puffed out at her.

Sakura laughed, she was unable to hold it in. She laughed, a real heartfelt laugh as she looked at him and he smiled. He liked it when she laughed, she should laugh more often.

“You are, thank you.” She hugged him, he stilled, she giggled, he dropped his arms and tucked them around her waist.

“Itachi isn’t here.” He muttered into her hair.

“No, he isn’t. You are.” She smiled as his breath heated her neck, he was here.

She wasn’t sure how it had happened, one day he was there and he had just stayed, and they were...friends now. She was happy. Maybe...she didn’t want to be alone anymore, if it meant Gaara was there.

“Thank you Gaara.” She said pulling back from their embrace.

He nodded and pulled her back to him nuzzling her hair once more. No one had ever let him get this close to them before and he found that...he liked the touch, the contact.

“Would you like to go to the store with me, I would like to get some things for school. I don’t want to wait much more or everything will be picked over.” She asked him as they walked back up her stairs.

“Ok.” He said looking grim.

“You don’t have to go with me.” She saw his less than pleased expression and wondered.

“Do you have anyone at home to tell before we go?” She asked, she hadn’t asked him too much about himself than what she knew already, what everyone knew of him already.

“No. My Uncle is on a long term mission, but will be back soon. Before my semester starts.” 

“Well, we should get your supplies too right?” She asked him.

“Sure.” He agreed.

Usually his Uncle got them for him but he thought it might be okay if he went with Sakura. She had a calming effect on him.

“My Uncle usually gets them for me but, if I am with you, it will be okay.” He felt the sudden need to warn her or...explain.

“It will be okay.” She smiled at him as she grabbed her bag and they left.

The store was crowded, too crowded. Gaara could feel his anger rising. People were walking too close, too slow, thier conversation was too dumb, too pointless, he was annoyed, and they were too close.

He reached out and grabbed Sakura’s hand, keeping her from stepping out in front of a cart careening down the aisle by a little boy hell bent on running someone over.

Gaara glared at the boy and he started to cry. Gaara smirked.

Sakura looked over at her friend who still had her hand in his and raised her eyebrow at him.

I saw that...her eyes said.

Gaara continued to smirk.

Sakura rolled her eyes in mock disgust and laughed at him. He pulled her over to the pens and picked out two different kinds putting them in her basket she was pushing. He grabbed paper, folders, binders and pencils with erasers.

He paused at the planners, did she want one? A bare arm skimmed the side of his cheek as she grabbed a pink planner and then a marron one and put them in the basket.

“Pink?” He asked her.

“Hair, I match my planner.” She grinned, he scoffed...stupid he thought.

“Maroon?” He pointed at the other planner.

“For you, it matches your bedroom.” 

He paused. How did she know?

“I watch you too sometimes.” She winked, he grinned.

They were standing in the check out line when it happened. The crush of humanity was too much too thick, too close. He couldn’t breathe.

His grip on her hand that he had refused to let go of, was hard and tight.

Sakura looked down to see he was squeezing her hand harder and harder, she looked at the strained look on his face.

“Gaara?” She asked him tugging on his hand a little to get his attention. He had a very confused, strained look about his eyes, like he was looking too far inward, into his head.

“Gaara.” She said his name again.

He turned then and looked at her, his eyes focusing on her eyes.

“Sakura.” he said her name and his breathing smooth a fraction.

“That’s it Gaara, look at me, we will be done soon, we are next in line.” She said calmly.

She had heard of this before, panic attack.

Sometimes there would be a patient that had a severe one come into the Konoha hospital, she was always called to assist them, she was the best at calming people.

She didn’t know Gaara had panic attacks, but she ought to have she chided herself, he was a hermit for the most part. She never saw him leave his home, only to come to hers and she wondered what he would do in school.

He had remained calm through the rest of the process of checking out. She had held his hand even when paying for their things. He had protested the expense but she had ignored him.

It wasn’t until they had reached her truck that he seemed to be upset again. She unlocked her truck and he got inside while she put their things in the bed.

“He has been watching you.” Gaara nodded to a man standing two cars over meddling with his keys.

“Oh.” She immediately started her truck and drove home quickly.

“Who was that?” Gaara asked.

“My old sensei.” She replied.

“You don’t like him.” A statement.

“I do, I just...I left Konoha to get away.”

He understood. He left Suna to get away from the assassins...but they kept coming.


	26. Chapter 26

Sakura stirred the soup absentmindedly in the pot, her thoughts went back to their afternoon. She knew Kakashi had seen her, she knew he had seen her run away too...he would understand the most, that she needed space, out of all of her old friends. He hadn’t approached her for a reason. Kakashi had probably only been staring because Gaara had been there with her.

Sakura turned to look at the boy, she corrected herself, the man sitting on the couch by the window. He was watching her. She smiled at him. He rose from the couch and walked over to her stopping in front of her, he opened his mouth as if to say something but stopped. She turned back to the stove to stir their soup and felt one arm, then the other wrap around her waist, as if he were trying it out, to see how it felt, not for her, but for himself.

She stood still and let him move at his own pace. His ridgid grasp made her smile. He liked touching her, she could tell, but she could also tell he didn’t quite know how to do it. She wondered when the last time someone touched him was.

Thinking deeply she hadn’t noticed his chin resting on her shoulder and his head tilt into the side of her cheek, hesitantly, testing again. 

“Gaara?” She said his name tentatively and turned in his arms.

His eyes bore into hers, tense and unyielding, as if he were, scared?

She smiled, he stepped back, his arms falling to his side, he looked down then moved back to the couch.

Sakura turned the heat down for their soup and went over to sit beside him.

“I wasn’t telling you to stop Gaara.” She reached a hand out to him slowly, he took it.

She pulled him closer, he came.

Sakura moved to the side, her legs up against his, one draped over one of his, he leaned in and she pulled, he turned in his sitting position and laid his head on her chest...exhaling softly.

“Lay with me? Until our soup is ready?” She pet him slowly, her fingers running through his short spiky locks.

He nodded, she smiled.

He closed his eyes, he felt relaxed, whole...content. He sighed.

Sakura looked down at Gaara, he looked so much more peaceful than earlier. She was worried about him though. How would he be able to handle going to college when he could barely handle going to the store. She would be the first to admit, she was happy they had most of the same classes together.

Her phone dinged. She tried to move slowly, so she wouldn’t disturb Gaara, and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Itachi: Did you get the flowers?

Sakura: Yes Itachi, thank you, they are beautiful.

Itachi: I’d like to take you out to dinner after your first week of classes, may I?

Sakura hesitated, she looked down to Gaara’s red locks, her one hand still on his head playing with his hair. Itachi was just a friend, the flowers, the….yeah, it didn’t mean anything, and she did owe him courtesy right?

Sakura: That would be nice Itachi, see you in three weeks then.

Itachi: Unless you want to have dinner earlier than that? I could come by tomorrow, around 6pm?

Sakura hesitated again…

Sakura: See you tomorrow at 6pm Itachi, nothing fancy okay?

Itachi: Whatever you want Sakura, see you at 6pm.

Sakura sighed and set her phone down next to her leg away from Gaara and began stroking his hair again.


	27. Chapter 27

"It's just dinner Gaara." I said smoothing his hair over his head, the spiky locks popping back up and out through my fingers with each pass of my hand.

"Eat dinner here." He said, his voice deep, unyielding.

"Itachi will know you are watching, he won't understand, it will make him feel uneasy." She tried to explain it to him.

"The flowers." Gaara said.

"We don't, it's not....he is a friend Gaara." She said.

"I'm a friend." He pulled back from where they were laying together on her bed to look at her.

"You are but, you're...more." She hesitated, what were they? They hadn't....but they had, he was there...almost every morning, turning into almost every night.

"More. I want more." He said, laying his head back down on her chest.

Sakura swallowed, did she want more..."It's just dinner. I'll be with you all morning, all day then you will leave before he gets here, and when we return from dinner he will leave, and you will come back over."

"Hiding."

"Cautious."

"You're ashamed." He said flatly.

"What? No!" Sakura sat up in her bed and looked at him, no, she wasn't she just...Itachi wouldn't understand, he would see Gaara as a threat, everyone did, they didn't know him, like she did.

His eyes looked so sad, like she had...she sighed, no she wasn't ashamed.

"I was trying to protect you." She said quietly.

"me." He stared at her.

"Itachi won't like that you are around me so much, your reputation, people don't see you the way I see you."

"How do you see me?" His voice was light, nervous? Like a child.

"You're kind, thoughtful, gentle. Shy." She smiled and reached out for him, he wrapped his arms around her burying his face in her neck, she fell back onto her bed, him beside her.

"Gentle?' His breath was warm against her skin.

She nodded. He pulled himself up to rest on his side, one arm bent, hand against his head to hold his weight up. She continued to lay flat on her back beside him, looking up at him.

"I like you here, I'm sorry." She apologized.

"Gentle." He traced the lines of her face with one finger, slowly...gently. He ran the pads of his fingers over her cheeks, down her neck, stopping over her pulse, closing his eyes. He could almost feel the blood moving under her skin. Deep breath, he swallowed.

Gentle, be gentle. He told himself.

His eyes watched his hand move over her skin, her eyes watched his. Hi fingers tugged at the tab of her shirt, pulling down slowly, gently. He looked back up to her face, for...permission? She nodded, he exhaled, he slid the two halves of her shirt apart, he held his breath, her chest moved under her rapid breathing, he ducked his head and kissed her breast through her bra, she squirmed, he stopped.

"Kiss me." She pulled him over her, he came, she met him halfway, he groaned.

His arms fell to the sides of her head, her arms went around his neck, their lips, crashed against one another.

"Please." He begged, for what? He didn't know.

"Gaara." his name came out in a groan, a plea of her own, for what? she didn't know.

Gentle, he said over and over in his head, gentle...his tongue shot put over her mouth , she gasped, he smiled.

"Sakura." he found his voice, deep, with what? Wanting? For her, only her.

They lay, they kissed, the night rose up around them, she whispered, he gasped, they lay.

"This is...nice." He said from beside her several hours later.

"It's only dinner Gaara, trust me." She lay beside him, her top still open, her hand in his.

"I do." He said befoe he fell asleep beside her, his hand in hers, other hand possesively over her stomach, pulling her to him, even in his sleep.


	28. Chapter 28

He came at 6pm, on time of course, because he was Itachi Uchiha.

Teal eyes watched from the shadows, he hated him. He had heard, who hadn't heard of...Itachi. Curious. How did she know him, a friend...was he?

She opened her door, simply dressed. He growled, she looked...nice.

Itachi bowed to Sakura, she looked nice. He went to take her hand, to lead her to his car. Sand exploded in front of him, between them.

Itachi grabbed Sakura, threw her through the air, she landed in a crouch several feet away, Itachi disapeared in a murder of corws, reapearing in front of her, stance offensive.

Gaara turned an unblinking eye upon the Uchiha. "Don't touch her."

"Gaara." Sakura stood and moved around Itachi to her friend.

"Sabaku no Gaara, I heard you had...gone into hiding." Itachi said passively.

"Don't touch her." Gaara said, his arms across his chest, looking, waiting.

"He wants you to answer him." Sakura turned to Itachi.

Itachi's eyes met Sakura's, she was...pleading with him. He sighed.

"I will not touch her, unwillingly." Itachi inclined his head to the redhead.

"She will never be willing, only me." Gaara said firmly.

"Sakura?" Itachi asked the nervous pink haired woman.

"Gaara is, my friend, he, it's hard to explain, we met, he helped me...he's not like they say Itachi. I trust him." She said, taking Gaara's hand in hers.

They watched, they waited, each looking at the other...

"I see." Itachi said. he did. He had waited too long.

"Perhaps dinner is...not a good idea then." Itachi bowed to them and went to get into his car.

"Itachi wait." Sakura left Gaara's side. The red head let her go, she would come back to him, he knew.

"Thank you, for everything you've done. I just, I need this, change." She tried to smile at him.

"I understand. Good luck, if you need me...you know where I am." Itachi reached his hand out to her, she set her hand in his, he kissed it, turning to Gaara.

"Take care of her." Itachi left.

"I will, she's mine." Gaara nodded.

Sakura walked back to Gaara.

I knew it, mine.

They went back inside her warehouse.


End file.
